I love my job. I wanted to be a teacher when I was eight years-old, and for a long time in my life, I never thought that dream would come true.
When you’re homeless and penniless, college starts to seem like a pipedream.

Despite my love for teaching, I love my summers more. This makes the first day of school a sad time for me. Gone are my long, lazy days with my wife and children. Gone is the freedom to golf or write or swim whenever I want.

Adding to the sadness of this year is the gradual disappearance of my closest friends at work. In the past five years, my wife and three of my closest friends (and many others) have either retired from teaching or moved onto other schools. I’ve begun to feel like the last man standing.

On top of all of this, the next two days are meeting days. Professional development. No bright-eyed, mischievous students to make my days fly by. Just adults. Talking at me. For hours and hours.

Happily, I have found a cure for the first day of school blues. It’s this video of son, who is watching a video of himself on one of those playground merry-go-rounds.

When I start to feel the pangs of sadness creeping in, I will watch this and be filled with joy.